Cleaner products - new tools, players and relationships1 From cleaner production processes, to environmental management, to cleaner products
1.1 Cleaner production processes 1.2 Environmental management 1.3 Cleaner products 1.4 Conclusion In principle, cleaner technology has always been defined broadly and has included products. Note the official definition from 1990: “... that efforts are made to eliminate pollution and waste resulting from the production, usage and disposal of products, or to limit it as close to the source as possible. This involves changing the product or the production process so that the total environmental impact from the circulation of materials through society is reduced as much as possible” (the Environmental Protection Agency, 1990). But in practice, the strategy, in terms of the cleaner technology projects implemented, has changed focus during the 90’s. Changes in the cleaner technology strategy Put briefly, the focus of the cleaner technology strategy has changed from almost exclusively being on technical development and demonstration projects, to broader activities aimed at promoting the dissemination of cleaner technology, and then to a far greater degree of integration of preventive environmental initiatives in relation to enterprises, networks and the authorities (For a more detailed historic examination of the action plans, see Remmen, 1995 & 1998). Awareness of the problem and solution These changes in the concept and the projects carried out indicate there has been a learning process for a number of the players involved, reflecting a changed awareness of both the environmental problems and of environmental policy and the cleaner technology strategy. The awareness of environmental problems has until recently focused mainly on resource usage and emissions from the production process in the form of smoke, waste and noise; but it is increasingly being extended to cover the entire production system and the product life cycle, including the choice of materials and design, transport, and the usage and disposal of the products. The cleaner technology strategy is changing accordingly, from a predominantly technical optimisation of existing production processes towards initiatives emphasising environmental management, sector-oriented activities, active involvement of the players, and the development and marketing of cleaner products, etc. The cleaner technology strategy Compared with ten years ago, the cleaner technology strategy has changed fundamentally in practice in many respects and is identical today with the principle of prevention of environmental problems throughout the product’s entire life cycle. Cleaner technology is increasingly being linked to a large number of activities, tools and measures:
Changes in problem awareness and strategy have been a learning process in which experience from the projects carried out has gradually led to changes in the awareness of the environmental problems and in the strategies and policies employed to promote cleaner technology. The most significant changes The most significant changes have been:
Three prevention concepts What follows is a description of what can be seen as the three main concepts for pollution prevention: cleaner production processes, environmental management and cleaner products. The aim is to outline the differences and to assess their relationship with an improved product-oriented environmental initiative. The development can be illustrated directly as an inverted pyramid:
This inverted pyramid is aimed at illustrating that awareness of the problem, strategies, and policies have all been expanded and given wider coverage. At the same time, the number of incentives and players has been increased quite considerably. Seen historically, environmental awareness and the pollution prevention strategy have become significantly more widespread as the limitations of the former approaches have become apparent. In other words, awareness of environmental problems and of the cleaner technology strategy is constantly undergoing dynamic change as a result of the inadequacy of the previous approaches and in recognition of new possibilities. 1.1 Cleaner production processesFocus on production Since the mid-80’s, the cleaner technology strategy has predominantly focused on reducing resource usage and emissions from the production process. A number of technical development and demonstration projects were carried out as part of an emphasis in practice to show that environmental problems could be reduced at the source in the production. Since 1993-94, communication activities have been increased, for example in the form of newsletters and sector consultants, with the aim of ensuring the dissemination of the cleaner technologies developed. The “easy gains” The advantage of the cleaner production approach was that it was relatively easy to “go for the easy gains” – as environmental improvements and economic savings could be achieved via technical optimisation and changes to work routines. Isolated projects One weakness, especially with the earlier projects, was that cleaner technology was seen as an isolated initiative which was finished when the project in question had been completed and duly reported to the Environmental Protection Agency, and too little attention was also paid to organisational factors. After the change of the Environmental Protection Act in 1991, cleaner technology became a primary focus and the environmental authorities began to be more interested in how cleaner technology could be incorporated into environmental regulation, inter alia, through the preparation of BAT-notes. Incentives and players The incentives for enterprises to introduce cleaner technology were initially production optimisation and financial savings combined with a degree of pressure from the environmental authorities to introduce cleaner technology. The players involved were primarily production engineers, environmental consultants, and the environmental authorities. Cleaner production processes
Production and product In relation to the future Product Oriented Environmental Initiative, there is an obvious connection between process and product. Obviously the production process has to be optimised in terms of the environment in order to be able to speak of cleaner products (see also section 1.3). But how much cleaner does a production process have to be made before the product is cleaner too? When a company changes from using ozone-depleting Freon compounds to using CO2 to make plastic foam during the production of district heating pipes, is this a cleaner product? Well, it is isn’t it? But if PVC is substituted with another material in the production of rubber boots, does that mean we have “cleaner” rubber boots? When water usage has been reduced by 90%, and energy consumption by 70% in the dyeing of cotton, the dyeing process has clearly become cleaner, but is the cotton jersey also seen as a cleaner product? The immediate answer is, that as long as environmental improvements remain in the phases where the “most significant” environmental impacts arise in the product’s life cycle, a product is not considered “cleaner”. On the other hand, cleaner production does not mean that all the environmental impacts have been removed, but rather that a process has begun which aims to constantly make environmental improvements. Nor are cleaner products the last word, which is why it is interesting to investigate how environmental improvements in production can lead to cleaner products. In future, the cleaner technology strategy will also include projects involving substitution and technology development in relation to the production process, so it is important to discuss and clarify how process and product improvements can be linked together and related. Because if one is able to imagine a product chain of enterprises which have optimised for the environment and introduced cleaner production processes and have optimised their choice of materials and product design, then it naturally follows that we have cleaner products. But let us examine this link more closely under environmental management. A dynamic approach The weakness of cleaner production, mentioned above, as an isolated initiative can be replaced by a dynamic way of thinking which focuses on what can keep the process moving. This dynamic can be illustrated as follows:
Figure 1.2 The snowball effect The challenge is to establish a snowball effect where enterprises are stimulated to move on from good environmental housekeeping in the form of changes to working procedures, habits, behaviour and production planning, to environmental optimisation of existing production technology, and then to more radical changes to production and the product. At the same time, the figure indicates a link between the focus of environmental initiatives and the incentive structure. Good environmental housekeeping can be achieved by ”picking the low hanging fruits“ in the form of resource savings. Technical optimisation can in principle lead to both resource savings and competitive advantages in the market; but a significant incentive is first and foremost the regulations of the authorities regarding introduction of the best available technology – set in future as EU requirements in the form of BAT notes. The more radical innovations go beyond the existing conditions for “what is worth doing” and “what is required”. These innovations can only be expected to become widespread if enterprises can expect to achieve a competitive advantage in the market by launching completely new processes and products. Thus, a gradual shift is taking place from narrow economic interests to a broader assessment of potential competition and market advantages. The above figure should not be misinterpreted as normative – that it is best that enterprises begin with good environmental housekeeping and then start the snowball effect. This is, of course, the most manageable progression from an organisational viewpoint. But there are example of movement in the opposite direction, such as Novotex in the textile industry, where a new product – in this case Green Cotton – gradually led to the introduction of cleaner technologies. However the figure does indicate that there is a difference in how radical the production changes are, and that different incentive structures must be expected to lie behind the different initiatives. An environmental management system is another way to make ongoing environmental improvements take root in an enterprise, apart from the “snowball effect” . 1.2 Environmental managementOrganisational focus Since 1992, the focus for preventive environmental initiatives has increasingly been environmental management in the form of either simple models for environmental management or certified/registered environmental management systems in respect to ISO 14001 or EMAS. The focus has thus potentially shifted from techniques to organisation, from technical process optimisation to an enterprise’s organisational prerequisites for systematic, continual, and preventive environmental initiatives. Ongoing environmental improvementsThe requirements in the various manuals and standards are primarily aimed towards the organisation, and towards enterprises committing themselves to making ongoing environmental improvements, in addition to what is required in the environmental legislation. In other words, enterprises commit themselves to letting “1,000 small cleaner technology initiatives flourish” –instead of just one isolated project. The focus has thus been directed towards management commitment, employee participation and commitment, integration with other management tasks such as quality assurance and the working environment, staff training, etc. Systematic activity The advantages of environmental management are that environmental management – at least on paper – has to be a systematic activity within enterprises which focuses on ongoing improvements and on anchoring environmental work organisationally. Other potential advantages are improved public image, improved cooperation with the enterprise’s partners, further resource savings, etc. (see also section 2.1.3). The increased use of green taxes on resource usage and emissions in the latter half of the 90’s has contributed to there being economic gains to be made by continuing environmental initiatives, while at the same time giving more enterprises an extra incentive to get started. A potential weakness with environmental management is that it can be difficult to keep up momentum and to maintain the system so that the dynamic in the environmental initiatives is preserved. In other words, can the focus on ongoing environmental improvements be maintained when environmental management becomes routine and when the enterprise has to give attention to other development projects? Problems:
Solutions:
Incentives:
Players:
Integrated quality and environment work It is worth noting that both the content and focus is different from monitoring, to control, to management, cf. the categorisation below:
Seen historically, the content and focus in an enterprise’s quality and environment work has shifted from supervisory arrangements, to control systems emphasising procedures and instructions, to management focusing on ongoing improvements. These shifts can be taken as an indication of a gradual learning process for enterprises, consultants, standards organisations, etc., as the limitations of the earlier approaches became known. Quality control is better than customer complaints. But prevention via quality procedures, etc. is better than final inspection of the product. And ongoing quality improvements are better than just being able to guarantee the same product quality, and so on. These changes to content and focus have also been supported by corresponding changes to the understanding of the concepts as they are prescribed in, for example, the management literature. Complementary approaches These changes can also be seen as complementary, with the content and focus becoming gradually extended and ever more comprehensive, from an expert-oriented, statistically organised, control function, to systems with procedures and instructions aimed at preventing and reducing problems (ISO 9000 and 14001) to ongoing improvements focusing on engagement and motivation as in Total Quality and Environmental Management (TQEM). ISO and TQM As an aside, ISO 14001 is more TQM inspired than its quality predecessor, ISO 9000, comparing the fact that the graphic depiction of environmental management is always a circle or spiral, illustrating the continual improvements, as against the traditional system design with a stable quality pyramid. However, the latest version of ISO 9000 also focuses on ongoing improvements. Whether an enterprise’s quality and environment work is, in practice, built around the system or around improvements will largely depend on the enterprise’s and the consultant’s strategies for implementing and anchoring it in the organisation. In general there has been a tendency for the environmental management system to primarily be related to the productive activities within the enterprise’s doors. A focus on ongoing environmental improvements should be expected, sooner or later, to lead to a focus on external activities, including transport and the product’s environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle (see also below). New players In parallel with this focus on the organisational anchoring of preventive environmental initiatives, business associations have been engaged in and made partly responsible for relating environmental management to the specific situation in the particular sector. This has particularly taken place in relation to the support programme for: “The Promotion of Environmental Management and Environmental Auditing in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” (Christensen, et al, 1997). Various players have by now become involved in environmental management in the form of management and employees, management consultants and auditors, advisors in the enterprises’ networks (eg. the vocational training centres (AMU), the Occupational Health Service (BST), TIC), etc.; and the enterprises with an environmental management system generally report constructive cooperation with the authorities which have become sparring partners in environmental initiatives (Christensen, et al, 1999). Standards and products Generally environmental management is understood in respect to ISO 14001 and EMAS as being directed towards environmental impacts from production. This is, in principle, a narrow interpretation of the standards, since ISO 14001 generally talks about “activities, products and services”, and EMAS contains similar formulations. During the revision of the EMAS scheme, Denmark has sought to have it made clear that EMAS-registered enterprises also have to reduce their products’ environmental impacts (Andersen, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 2000). In the Environmental Protection Agency’s leaflet, EMAS is “Your guarantee of an environmentally-friendly supplier”, and it goes on to say: “An EMAS registered supplier also has to place environmental demands on his suppliers. The result is that the products you buy are produced with environmental consideration throughout the entire product chain. In this way you help to influence development in the direction of sustainable production and products” (the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 2000a). EMAS is thus marketed as a means of promoting the development of cleaner products. Some enterprises with environmental management have already expanded and products their focus from saving resources within the factory walls, to covering the entire product chain. Via projects supported under the Cleaner Technology Action Plan, experience has been gained in involving the environment in supplier management and similar activities with the aim of increasing the exchange of information and environmental cooperation between suppliers and customers (eg., see Arnfred, et al, 1997). In the graphics sector, it has now become a competition parameter to have an environmental management system. These enterprises have extended their environmental initiatives to the product’s life cycle and to cover eco-labelling of graphics products. This dynamic is mainly linked with the fact that credibility on environmental issues has been added as an extra competition parameter in the graphics sector, in addition to traditional parameters such as price and quality. Added to this is the fact that public institutions, via their procurement policies, have increased demand for stationery products bearing the Swan label, and the business association has been very active in promoting preventive environmental initiatives. Environmental management In future, a number of enterprises will highlight one or more environmental as a step towards eco-labelling advantages of their product in order to achieve a competitive advantage in the market, and certified environmental management is an option here, as mentioned before. The example of Novotex and Green Cotton further shows that at least one enterprise has been able to achieve international fame by concentrating on an environmentally-friendly product – without having definitive documentation of the product’s environmental performance in the form of a life-cycle assessment. Any enterprises which do not promise more than they can deliver or can document, can achieve similar competitive advantages based on the life-cycle perspective and the constant determination to make environmental improvements. One of the first steps – on Novotex’s path to environmental documentation for what they had been doing for several years – was a certified environmental management system. This has since been extended to include both supplier management and eco-labelling of the product with the Swan and the EU Flower labels. (eg., see Gyrsting & Simonsen, 1998). Life-cycle-based environmental management The majority of small and medium-sized Danish enterprises will presumably choose an approach to focusing on their products’ environmental impacts either via cleaner production and/or environmental management. This presents a number of challenges for both the development of tools/methods and for a stronger link between environmental management and the life-cycle perspective. Life-cycle-based environmental management will be immediately attractive to small and medium-sized enterprises because it provides opportunities for gradual implementation and to reap the potential benefits of cleaner products along the way. A full life-cycle assessment, and a product-oriented environmental initiative based on this means there will be a long way to go before the potential market advantages are achieved. 1.3 Cleaner productsThe Product Oriented Environmental Initiative At the end of 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency published a discussion paper on “An Intensified Product Oriented Environmental Initiative”. This paper has since been further developed, inter alia, into an actual support programme which was launched at the beginning of 1999. The problem awareness behind this was that the earlier cleaner technology strategy had been successful in terms of reducing the environmental impact from production. But in future, the biggest environmental problems would be linked to general resource usage in society and the use and disposal of certain types of products. Competitive advantages It has also been assumed that Danish industry can achieve a competitive advantage in the market by being among the “first movers” to supply cleaner “products with better environmental performance to a quickly growing global market” (the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 1996, p. 10). Awareness of the problems and solutions, as well as incentives for enterprises and the previously involved players from cleaner production and environmental management, are still fully “valid”. However, a number of further characteristics are added when focus moves on to cleaner products. Cleaner products Problems:
Solutions:
Incentives:
Players:
The conditions The basic idea behind a product-oriented environmental initiative has been illustrated as a triangle connecting product, market and players. (The Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 1996). According to the Environmental Protection Agency it is necessary to connect three perspectives in order to create the conditions for this: (ibid. p.13):
The foundation The earlier cleaner technology programmes have supported various product-oriented projects, including isolated projects within the focus areas: textiles, electronics and transport. With transport and some of the evaluated product projects as a partial exception, these projects have been predominantly oriented towards developing life-cycle assessment as a tool and a database, and towards eco-labelling and the development of purchasing guidelines for incorporating environmental criteria into public sector procurement. These are particularly important tools and instruments, but as was highlighted in the discussion paper on a product-oriented environmental initiative (see also section 2.1) these initiatives must be anchored more generally and deeply in the thought processes and routines of designers and product developers, in each enterprise’s strategy development, in the awareness and approaches in each enterprise’s knowledge networks, in the market, and in environmental regulation. Eco-labelling Enterprises which concentrate on eco-labelling their products and on achieving market advantages have to be able to document that the most significant environmental impacts have been reduced in relation to the set criteria for eco-labelling for the particular product category. This documentation will either require the detailed exchange of information in the product chain or the completion of a life-cycle assessment or screening. Environmental declarations and product-chain cooperation In parallel with this, small and medium-sized enterprises which supply larger enterprises will gradually extend their environment work to include the product, as part of environmental management. If these enterprises do not produce directly for the consumer market, environmental declarations can provide the requested information to customers, which they need, for example, in connection with eco-labelling of their products. Definitions of cleaner products Some enterprises have experience with life-cycle assessment and the development of cleaner products (for a summary of such experience, see Broberg, et al, 1998). It is worth pointing out here that in the literature, “cleaner products” covers widely varying concepts. A hierarchy of definitions for cleaner products can be laid out, in which a gradual expansion takes place in what the concept covers (Drewbury & Goggin, 1996). It is possible to distinguish between:
The support programme for cleaner products clearly focuses on what is here called Eco-design. In addition, it is worth highlighting that the development of cleaner technology of course does not stop with cleaner products. Expansion and narrowing? With the Product Oriented Environmental Initiative, awareness of the problem and solution has been expanded quite significantly to cover the entire production system and the product life cycle. But the focus on tools in the product-oriented projects carried out to date gives reason for concern that awareness of the problem and solution has also become narrower, with factors such as organisational anchoring, economic/social understanding of the product chain and network cooperation, etc. being put into the background. The breakthrough of the Product Oriented Environmental Initiative will depend on the success of attempts to actively involve more player groups and to establish a market dynamic with demand for cleaner products (see also section 2.1). Against this background, two challenges seem to be urgent, to connect the three corners – products, market and players – in the Environmental Protection Agency’s triangle with the aim of creating framework conditions for a product-oriented environmental initiative, and to support interaction and cooperation between the various players. Innovation The means for connecting the three corners can be summed up in one word – innovation. This might seem so obvious that it is not worth mentioning. In the area of innovation research, the focus has largely shifted from the individual process/product innovations to the framework conditions for innovation both at enterprise level in terms of organisational flexibility, skills, etc. and at society level with focus on knowledge networks, infrastructure, institutions, etc. (eg., see Næs Gjerding, 1997 and Lundvall, 1999). In other words, innovation is not just a technical issue, but just as much a social factor. Distributed process Instead of seeing innovation as a matter simply for the development department in each enterprise, innovation is rather a distributed process involving the exchange of knowledge and experience among various players, both internally within the enterprise and externally in relation to customers, suppliers, and the wider knowledge network. An important focus for a product-oriented environmental initiative must be to connect a “technology push” strategy – what technology has to offer – with a “market pull” strategy – demand for cleaner production technologies and products. This involves a general awareness of innovation with a focus on connecting the technical and social aspects, including the three corners of the Environmental Protection Agency’s triangle: products, market, and players. Social innovation When the focus is placed on social innovation, it becomes necessary, to a far greater degree than before, to focus on:
Knowledge and experience exchange Following on from these, it is a further prerequisite for the development of cleaner products that all players become involved and committed and that new interaction and cooperation patterns be established between the players (see also section 2.1.2). The exchange of knowledge and experience along with cooperation and institution development are keywords in the innovation of new cleaner products. There is also environmental potential in the “environmental rediscovery” of existing products – that is, where known products are rethought and redesigned based on environmental consideration throughout the product’s entire life cycle. 1.4 ConclusionConcepts for prevention It is a clear strength that awareness of the problem and solution in relation to the prevention of environmental problems has been widened to include products. At the same time, this examination shows that the three concepts for prevention are not mutually exclusive, but are rather three different approaches for enterprises to a preventative environmental initiative. Each enterprise’s situation and strategic considerations have to be decisive for which approach to choose. Rather than consultants now focusing only on the “new” form of the Product Oriented Environmental Initiative and throwing cleaner production processes and environmental management “out with the bath water”, the challenge is instead to show enterprises how an initiative in one place can gradually be extended to become more comprehensive and to include products. This outline of cleaner production processes, environmental management and cleaner products should be seen as an overview of the discussion on prevention and cleaner technology, not just in Denmark but also internationally. It is worth noting here that in some contexts, for example UNEP/UNIDO, cleaner production is widely used in equivalence to cleaner technology in the Danish context (eg. see Brezet et al: ECODESIGN, UNEP, 1997). Different awarenesses within each concept In the above examination, emphasis has been on highlighting:
Progression and non-simultaneity The form of the presentation might give the impression that the development outlined has been progressive, with awareness of the problem and solution becoming more comprehensive and the environmental initiatives more comprehensive. This “idealisation” can be found at the conceptual level and in the leading enterprises which have a proactive environment strategy in practice. But this picture is only part of the reality, which should hopefully be apparent from chapter 2. The other part of the picture is pronounced sector differences, non-simultaneity and limited dissemination of the cleaner technologies developed, lack of dynamism in environmental management systems, etc. This is the reality which still characterises most Danish enterprises which, at best, have a reactive environmental strategy. Environmental innovation and economics With the qualification contained in the above considerations, this examination also shows that the focus of the innovation aspects of preventative environmental initiatives in enterprises has shifted along the way from techniques, to organisation, to products, in parallel with the increased involvement of other players in the knowledge and development network, primarily business associations, suppliers, etc. As will become apparent later (sect. 2.1.3) these shifts have also contributed to a changed awareness of economics and competitive advantages in preventative environmental initiatives, from cost neutrality and resource savings, to improved image, to potential market advantages for cleaner products. Summary The changes in innovation focus and incentives can be summed up generally as follows: If one begins instead with the concept of environmental management, a similar change of focus can be observed. During the late 80’s and early 90’s, the focus was on technical environmental management emphasising environmental auditing – cf. the American term Waste Minimization Audit (EPA, 1988). With the launch of the British standard, BS 7750 in 1992, focus became increasingly directed towards certified environmental management – cf. the earlier description (sect. 1.2). In the future, attention will clearly be given to life-cycle-based /product-oriented environmental management, partly due to the fact that enterprises can clearly extend environmental initiatives to the entire product chain while at the same time it is becoming environmentally uninteresting to carry on with resource savings in production. Other concepts As mentioned before, cleaner products cannot be expected to be the ultimate concept. Industrial ecology, sustainable design, cleaner forms of living, dematerialisation, sustainable production and consumption, etc. are examples of concepts and ideas which on some points are more comprehensive and which have had greater penetration internationally than in Denmark. Some of these concepts suggest that environmental problems in society should not only be reduced via technological development – and technical fixes – in the form of cleaner production and products, but will also require social changes in forms of living, consumption patterns and levels, etc. These concepts and ideas can become an important part of creating a fruitful interaction between technical and social innovations, and placing even greater focus on social innovation in preventative environmental initiatives. _____________________________________________________________________ |
